tead of killing or capturing us
all, he--he only got Naida. But he won't give up. I think he is taking
the apes off to some place from which he can launch a new attack. And
we've got to stop him before he is ready to deliver another blow."

"What do you mean?" Ivana now asked.

"Do you know where the villages of the ape-people are?"

"Yes. None of us has been very far into the Rorroh, but I could guess
where some of the villages may stand."

* * * * *

Silence fell after that, but Kirby knew from the glint in Ivana's eyes,
and the quick breaths which other girls drew, that they understood.

"Ivana," he said suddenly, "will you go with me into the Rorroh jungle,
and stay with me, facing down every danger it may conceal, until we have
found Naida and brought her back?"

A flush of life crept into Ivana's pallid cheeks.

"Yes!"

Kirby faced the other girls, all of them keyed up now.

"Nini, will you go?"

Nini, bronze-haired, dainty nymph of a girl, who had yet the stamina of
a man, looked at him with brave eyes. Then her hands tightened on her
rifle, and she stepped forward.

"When will you have us start?" Ivana asked in a low voice.

"Now!" Kirby answered, and, taking up the rifle which lay beside
him--the same with which Naida had fought--he looked at the other
girls.

"There is not one of you," he said slowly, "who would not go willingly
on this quest. But the pursuit party must be small and mobile. And
there is another duty. To all of you I leave the care of the castle and
the plateau. Take the three rifles I shall leave behind, do what you can
to reassure the old people, and hold the plateau safe until we return."

A murmur of girls' voices sounded in the temple. Kirby motioned to Nini
and Ivana, and followed by a low cheer, they moved off together.

* * * * *

The night was on them, where they crouched in a cave above a swiftly
flowing river. Kirby, rifle across his knees, sat peering out across the
black, invisible stretches of the forest. His nostrils quivered to this
mingled smells of fresh growth and fetid decay of the grotesque land. In
his ears shrilled the creaking and scraping of insects, the flap of
unseen wings, the distant bellowing grunt of some unseen, unknown
animal.

"I cannot sleep," Ivana said presently, from back in the cave.

"Hush," he whispered, "you will wake Nini."

"But I am already awake!" came her answer.